


Wilting Flower

by Nathan_Thorn



Category: RWBY
Genre: Depression, F/F, F/M, Heavy Angst, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Suicide
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:28:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27036472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nathan_Thorn/pseuds/Nathan_Thorn
Summary: Ruby has changed since the Vytal Festival. She’s less cheery and distant from her teammates. Or are they more distant from her? How is Ruby coping without anyone to turn to?
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long, Jaune Arc/Pyrrha Nikos, Lie Ren/Nora Valkyrie, Oscar Pine/Ruby Rose
Comments: 9
Kudos: 27





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> To preface, firstly I should say I wrote this while going through some dark times in my life. Secondly, there is a relationship in here that, while not technically fitting of certain tags, is deeply fucked up and I do not support whatsoever. However, for the purposes of this fic (and at the great urging of one of my... colleagues) it is written into the story. I... think you’ll know which one it is. My apologies if you missed this warning and the other warnings in the tags.

“Fuck my life.” 

This was the thought running through Ruby’s head, almost constantly. Gods, where had it all gone wrong? She’d been such a happy, optimistic Huntress, at least when Beacon had begun. Their first year had been going well, up until the school dance. She’d been getting mixed signals from her first crush, Pyrrha, and decided to ask her to the dance. Pyrrha had smiled politely and crushed Ruby’s dreams of a future together with a single sentence. “I’m already going with Jaune.” 

She’d gone on to elaborate about how she wasn’t interested in girls at all, but by then Ruby wasn’t listening. She had walked away, tears stinging at her eyes, and sobbed through most of the night leading up to the dance. Weiss had been busy arranging a date with Neptune, and Yang and Blake were off doing… who knew? Maybe Yang had seduced her, or the other way around, but nobody cared to stop into the dorm and check on the young huntress. 

This had led to her skipping the dance entirely, instead wandering the town. Although she ended up on a few rooftops here and there, and had contemplated jumping, she couldn’t put her team through that. She almost missed the woman sneaking onto the CCT tower, but Ruby’s yelp of surprise and deployment of Crescent Rose sent the masked woman running. Of course, she’d later find out exactly who it was that attempted to sabotage the CCT. In fact, she was currently in that woman’s custody.

One rejection? No, this isn’t what had turned her into the depressed mess currently laying on the floor in Cinder’s hideout. It had taken two more, far worse relationships to break the Silver eyed Huntress.

The first was Oscar. A transfer student from Mistral, he was kind, charming, and, above all, much closer to her young age than those surrounding her. Perhaps she had someone she could actually form a connection to. Then, of course, Ozpin had died under mysterious circumstances, and she got to learn firsthand about the immortal parasite he was. Oscar told her all about what Ozma, or Ozpin, or whoever it was, inside his head. 

It was almost like getting the news Oscar had a fatal disease. He was gonna be changing, and soon enough he’d be a different person entirely. It would be worse than Oscar dying… there would be someone else wearing his face, ordering Oscar around… she stayed with him for a while, trying to enjoy some of their last days together, but eventually she moved on once he started getting serious about taking back his position as headmaster. Not Ozpin’s. His. That was when she knew Oscar was gone. 

Ruby had thrown herself into hunting Grimm, had even cleared out the Emerald Forest, paving the way for a new settlement. It had taken her nearly three weeks, but the forest was completely out of Grimm. Of course, Ozma had come and congratulated her on the achievement, which she’d shrugged off in favor of heading back to her dorm and spending nearly a week in bed, only fed with meals Yang would bring for her. That was when the letters began to arrive.

Letters from someone she’d almost completely ignored before… it was an odd time to start receiving them but after her display during the Vytal Festival they’d seemed to get more and more mail. These were different, though. Fan mail was something she’d largely ignored, but these fancy looking letters with the Schnee crest on them… she opened them up to find long, handwritten love letters, each one making their writer seem more and more tantalizing… 

Finally, someone who wouldn’t reject Ruby, or die on her like Oscar had… as time went on she fell more and more in love with this mysterious writer, and wrote back asking if they’d like to meet sometime. Their writing and prose were so tempting… finally, someone who’d take care of her, and not ignore her like her team had, time and time again…

God, her team had been… bad lately. Weiss talked to her but Ruby had put on her happy face and made it seem like everything was alright. Her partner wouldn’t care or wouldn’t do anything if she knew what had happened to her… twice… Yang and Blake were so invested in each other, even after Blake had abandoned them during the festival… god, she wished Yang would think with her head and not what was between her legs. Blake… where to start with her… a former terrorist, part of the group that had attacked during the Festival, and to top it all off she’d disappeared for months to “make things right,” without even waiting for Yang to wake up after the fight during the Festival. 

Now that she’d come back Yang had changed… Ruby’s own sister had fallen in love with a damn terrorist. She knew her sister loved her but Yang hardly showed it now that she and Blake were together. Yang was stuck to her girlfriend at the hip (literally after an incident with glue, although Ruby had found the irony distasteful). 

Nora and Ren had taken a gap year to build a home together now that Nora was pregnant, with Jaune and Pyrrha spending most of their time helping them. That left Weiss and Penny as Ruby’s only friends that actually hung out with her more than once or twice a week. Penny was sometimes busy with testing her new upgrades, but almost always had time for Ruby. 

Weiss was… well, they didn’t call her Ice Queen for nothing. She was much warmer with her team but constantly threw herself into her studies, often dragging Ruby through the torture of studying for subjects they’d find useless years down the road. It was either that or sparring practice, with the occasional mission thrown in from Ozcar. Ruby had rejected some of his missions at first, but eventually caved after realizing it was one of the few things she could still enjoy. 

Weiss had asked Ruby if something was wrong a few times now, but Ruby often deflected it with either the excuse her Aura was running low or that she hadn’t slept well on the latest mission. She took more and more solo missions, preferring the lonelier jobs of tearing apart Grimm with her scythe and bullets rather than having her team around to ignore her. And if the Grimm proved too much on a solo job, nobody would miss her terribly. 

Of course, she hadn’t been up against Grimm to get into Cinder’s hideout. She’d been ambushed by that two-tone thief wearing Penny’s face, been knocked out before her aura had a chance to even flicker up and defend her. She’d woken up with her hands bound, looking up at the woman she thought she’d killed. Cinder Fall.

“So, you’re finally awake, you little brat. You have no idea how much I’ve wanted to do this.” She said, as she tried to reach for Ruby with her Grimm arm. Once it made contact, however, Cinder nearly shrieked in pain as the Grimm ate up most of her shoulder, biting into part of her neck and replacing it with black, light absorbing skin. She pulled her hand away, a shocked and pained expression on her face as she looked down at her arm.

It had grown more… savage. It seemed to be stronger, yet thinner looking, and the nails had extended into sharp claws, somewhere between a Beowolf’s claws and a Nevermore’s talons. It writhed and twisted about, eager to return to the limp Huntress and finish the job. Cinder held it back, shaking her head and storming out of the room.

After several minutes of loud arguing, Roman entered the room. He had conflicted emotions playing across his face, trying to put on a smile after receiving his orders from Cinder. Killing a child… while it would be simple enough work, with Ruby not able to put up a fight, it still rubbed the thief the wrong way. She didn’t even look willing to resist if he untied her. 

“Just get it over with…” Ruby muttered, her first words spoken since she’d woken up in this place. “Don’t you want revenge? For letting that Grimm attack you? What’re you waiting for, you coward?” This was worse than he thought.

He saw there wasn’t any real fire behind the insults… that vacant look in her eyes… suddenly he was in a different place, a different time… a mostly empty street in Ansel… seeing bullies shove around a girl… chasing them off with his cane, seeing that same look in those mismatched eyes… he snapped back to reality. He couldn’t do it. She reminded him far too much of Neo, of how she’d been when he found her. He knew what he could do, though.

He untied the brat and handed her Crescent Rose, since Cinder had been lazy enough to leave it lying around. He picked up the small Huntress, placing her outside while he smashed apart bits of the room, gashing himself with glass from a window, making the scene look ugly. Then, he double checked Ruby had everything he needed, and texted Neo he needed a favor.

Weiss was panicking. Her partner had been ambushed in Vale. Inside the city limits! The one time Penny wasn’t around to greet her at the landing platform… “I never should’ve let her take these solo missions. There’s a reason we’re partners!” She was talking to herself, worried sick about what she and Penny had gotten from some eyewitnesses. Apparently Penny’s doppelgänger had ambushed Ruby, and made off with the Huntress before anyone could react. Suddenly, a shadow fell across the window. “Blake?” Weiss asked, before realizing Yang and Blake were still out on a weeklong mission, and wouldn’t be back for another day. 

“Neo?” Weiss asked, seeing the ice-cream themed thief on the windowsill. And she was carrying Ruby in her arms. “Ruby!” Weiss shouted as she rushed over, taking Ruby from the thief’s hands. “Why?” Weiss asked, holding Ruby and staring at the thief. She held up her Scroll. “Boss’s Orders,” it read. Suddenly she fell backwards, and Weiss looked down from the window to see a few bits of scattered glass, and a missing thief.

“Weiss? You can put me down now.” Ruby said, annoyed at the physical contact. “Not happening. What happened to you? We’re taking you to the infirmary to get a full check-up and make sure nothing’s wrong with you.”

“They didn’t do anything to me though. Just put me in my bed and let’s pretend this didn’t happen, ok?”

“No, it’s not ok. Penny and I were worried sick about you, after we heard you were attacked… Ruby, they could’ve killed you. We wouldn’t have been able to stop them… we could’ve lost you.”

“And? You’re making this seem like a big deal.”

“It is a big deal! Why are you acting disappointed?”

“Maybe I didn’t wanna be rescued. Maybe I wanted them to get their revenge so they wouldn’t have a reason to come after you. Maybe I just want to die.” 

She didn’t just say that. She did not just say that. “Ruby? Show me your arms.” 

“Why?” 

“I just wanna see them.” 

“Fine…”

Weiss looked over them, front and back… at least Ruby wasn’t cutting. She remembered finding Winter doing that at one point, back when she lived in the same house as Jacques… getting hot water and bandages to patch her up, seeing her break down.. Not now, Weiss, Ruby needs you. 

“Did you… you don’t mean that, do you? That you want to die?” For the first time, Weiss saw her partner’s vacant eyes, without any masks or fake happiness hiding it. 

“Why do you care? All you’ve ever done has been for yourself or your precious family.” Ruby spat. “Always working to be the best, to show the rest of the team up… constantly dragging us through studying and classes so we wouldn’t drag you down… trying to be the perfect student. Do you realize how fucking pretentious that is, that push to be the best… god, you really are your father’s daughter.” The venom in Ruby’s voice stung Weiss to the core. Ruby didn’t stop there.

“If you haven’t noticed, I’ve got through three bloody relationships this year, each one ending worse than the last. First Pyrrha rejected me, then Oscar got taken over by that damned parasite… and then your fucking brother took advantage of what was left. A clingy, desperate girl with nothing to lose. Look how that turned out, Weiss. That bastard of a child played all lovey-dovey while fooling around with other women, bragging about how he’d have silver-eyed heirs… it makes me want to puke just thinking about him.”

“Ruby… I had no idea…” “Of course you didn’t. You never bothered checking up on how your partner was doing, if things were going well, or even checked up on your own family. You could’ve checked up on me or him and warned me about what an absolute bastard he was. You were too busy putting yourself first, instead of the team or anybody else.” Weiss’ jaw hung open, the conflicting emotions too much for her at the moment. 

“Stop, Ruby. Just stop.” Weiss said, laying Ruby down in her bed. Tears were stinging at her eyes, having her friend attack her like this. She nearly stormed out of the room, heading for the rooftop to make some calls in private. She made sure nobody saw her as she made her way through the halls into the rooftop access. She punched a number into her scroll.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slightly less dark but we’ll be back to exploring Ruby’s relationships soon.

Yang’s scroll buzzed, Weiss’ custom ringtone coming from the speakers. She picked up on the first ring, eager for news of her missing sister. “Weiss? What is it? Did you find Ruby?” She asked, rattling off questions like a machine gun. She slowed down when she heard Weiss sniffling, quiet sobs coming through the speakers. 

“Weiss? Did something happen to Ruby?” Yang asked. “Yes…” Weiss muttered, although the scroll picked it up clearly. “Is she ok?” Yang asked, worry growing on her face. “She’s alive and has all her limbs attached, anyway,” Weiss said, “but you’d better get back here to see what I’m talking about ASAP.”

“Yeah, we’ll be on the next bullhead back. Is there anything you need from us right now, Weiss?” Yang asked. 

“Not until you get back here. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a few calls to make.” Weiss ended the call on her scroll. She scrolled through her contacts, down past her team’s speed dial numbers, and into their close friends. She pressed the call button next to Pyrrha’s cheesy profile pic, a picture of her and Jaune together.

Ruby was still lying on her bed when Blake and Yang arrived the next day. She was rudely awoken by Yang shaking her awake, turning over to see the cheery blonde with a concerned look on her face. Behind her, Blake stood in the center of the room, looking over Yang’s shoulder and watching Ruby carefully, as if she were a Grimm about to pounce on them. 

“What’re you two doing back? I thought you were gone for another day or two.” “They didn’t need us too badly for the mission, and team CRDL subbed in for us so they weren’t left short-handed. We came back to see you, Ruby. What happened?”

“Oh, just a thief pretending to be my friend knocked me out, dragged me to Cinder’s hideout, Cinder tried to kill me but she couldn’t follow through for some reason, Roman apparently grew a heart and tossed me back for his daughter to carry back here where Weiss found me. Nothing horrible happened, anyway.”

“Ruby, you almost died. If Cinder hadn’t hesitated, if Roman hadn’t sent you back, you’d be dead! How can you be ok with that?” “We’re Huntresses, we do it all the time, Yang. Remember when you lost your arm? Or when Weiss got stabbed by Cinder?” 

“Yeah, and those were both insanely dangerous and could’ve killed both of us. Why are you so… nonchalant about death? You’ve been taking on what’ve been nearly suicide missions, now you’re acting like you didn’t just get kidnapped and nearly executed… what’s wrong with you, Ruby?” 

“Oh, where should we start with the pair of you? Firstly, my own sister, who was my best friend, disappeared for months searching for Raven, then didn’t even bother checking in before hunting down Blake. And we’ll get to you later, kitty. You did all this without a care in the world for what I was doing, where I was, how I was feeling after watching Pyrrha nearly die… after finding a new relationship with Oscar and then having him practically die thanks to that stupid immortal parasite, leaving just that… monster wearing my boyfriend’s old face.

“And then you came back, Blake in tow with you suddenly being all lovey-dovey like a switch got flipped, and after months of separation you barely had time for me. You two were tied together at the hip, never giving me a chance to tell anyone how I was feeling… and trust me, Weiss was no help for that either. Between Oscar and my stupid, stupid crush on Pyrrha, my team disappeared on me. 

“And speaking of disappearing, kitty, let’s talk about exactly how horrible of a friend you are. First, you try to hide the fact you’re a Faunus from us. Second, you don’t bother letting us know you’re a former terrorist. Third, you completely disappear on us after the Festival for months to go gallivanting around in Menagerie with Sun. Why are you so… so… ugh, I can’t even find the right words.

“And then, after all that bullshit with the secrets and the lies, you come wandering back into our lives, arm in metal arm with Yang, and steal away any chance I had of having a friend I could talk to. Of even having my sister back. Now you two are always a damn package deal, and it’s insufferable how inseparable you two are. I don’t know how you managed it, honestly. You literally let your ex boyfriend cut off Yang’s arm, then ran away. Maybe Yang’s just stupid. I don’t know.

“Ruby!” Yang cut her off, having had enough of her insults. “We came back to help you. Maybe we should’ve just stayed on that mission…” Yang said, dangerously close to activating her semblance. Yang turned and walked away before Ruby could come up with a rebuttal. 

Blake stared at Ruby for a long moment before following her girlfriend out of the room. “This isn’t right,” she said to Yang, walking with her back to the ship to retrieve some of their gear. “Ruby’s never had a problem with my past before, and she loves her big sister, even when you pissed her off. What do you think happened?”

“I’ll tell you what happened,” Weiss said, waiting for them on the landing platform.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There’s one line written for the next chapter so expect a longer break after this one because I basically had this one written already.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes there is another chapter in the works  
> No I don’t know when it will be ready for posting


End file.
